Mr. Novak, NBC TV Series 1963-65. (1 Viewer)

[borisfw]

I’m also a fan of Marta Kristen. Met her at a show about 15 years ago. Was still very pretty and friendly. She had a decent part in a Man From Uncle called the Neptune Affair.

 

[Flashgear]

Mr. Novak season two, episode six, Let's Dig a Little Grammar (Nov. 10, 1964) W: Mel Goldberg. D: Joseph Sargent. Guest starring Tommy Sands, Johnny Crawford, David Sheiner, Harvey Lembeck. Special guest star Allan Sherman. Screen caps from my home made DVD...



This brilliant, musically loaded second season episode may feature a number of music rights complications for Warner Archive, presuming they haven't already accomplished these clearances in anticipation of eventually releasing season two. Those who think that the plot line, performances and effective drama on Mr. Novak would invariably suffer in direct proportion to the amount of featured music in an episode need to see this one! In my opinion, it features one of the series greatest moments...an extended 10 minute concert trumpet duel that really carries you away in absolute bliss, as you say to yourself, "wow, I've never seen anything like that before!" It's not just the music that is great, it's the performances, and the believable and genuine scenario it represents...indeed, the beautiful music here, Dixieland and Swing, facilitates the story itself, which is rich in the eternal themes of youthful angst, idealism, and the sometimes tragic illusions of youth...

Guest star Tommy Sands (27), Frank Sinatra's son in law and a moderately successful teenage singer back in the day, (but a better actor), plays Ray, a senior about to graduate. He's a mathematical whiz, a scholar of potentially genius proportions, who's real passion is Jazz Trumpet...


His best friend is Jo Jo Rizzo, played by 18 year old Johnny Crawford (The Rifleman), a fellow devotee to the Jazz Trumpet...these guys are genuinely and believably best friends, but with a natural rivalry where Jo Jo defers to the more dominant Ray, despite his own talent being superior...


Jo Jo works after school in his elder brother's men's wear shop...he is played by Harvey Lembeck (The Phil Silver's Show)...he is his biggest fan, and as a former professional Trumpet player himself, the only one who really believes in Jo Jo's incredible potential to be a real star in the Jazz world...


Into the shop comes Mr. Novak himself, and a bandleader (Allan Sherman of the 1963 top ten mega hit Hello Muddah, Hello Fuddah, a letter from Camp Grenadah, and reportedly, President Kennedy's favorite comedian), who is looking to recruit a new lead trumpet player for an upcoming tour...


Jo Jo turns him down, refusing an audition as the kid is entirely focused on graduating, in spite of being a struggling student...he doesn't believe in his own talent as a musician and isn't the effortless scholar that his friend Ray is...Ray, however, is very interested in auditioning, despite the necessity of dropping out should he be picked for the tour...


Stephen Roberts returns as Mr. Peeples, Ray's Math teacher who is astounded at Ray's genius insight in challenging a Euclidean theorem that was previously thought to be axiomatic... Once again, Mr. Peeples is revealed to be a sometimes angry and volatile teacher who nevertheless has Ray's best interests at heart...Ray is certain of his true calling..."I live in my own skin and I know what I feel"...


Ray and Jo Jo's music teacher, Mr. Webb, is played by David Sheiner...Ray has nothing but disdain for Mr. Webb as a music teacher: "He couldn't hold down a chair with Guy Lombardo!"...however, Webb knows that although Ray has polished skills and is technically excellent, he lacks the ethereal instincts to play improvised Jazz scales as improv represents the paramount challenge and prestige of the professional Jazz world...with no written score, you have to have the instincts born of "blowing your soul out", and yet also to know when to yield to another player's surging inspiration...something you either have or you don't...something that simply cannot be taught...Novak knows that somehow, he must get Ray and Jo Jo to find their own way to fully exploit their natural strengths...he takes a Tuba lesson from Sheiner along the way...


Novak has a plan...he displays a 'tough love' approach in goading Jo Jo in asserting himself finally against the natural (but affectionate and well meaning) dominance of Ray in their friendship...he dares the boys to stage a musical duel where "may the best horn win"...Jo Jo is hesitant and taken aback...he says of Ray: "That cat blows a mess of horn, he would murder me"...Novak responds: "No, I think you would have laid down and died!"...Jo Jo is crestfallen, shocked at Novak's blunt message...


Novak also goads Mr. Webb, the music teacher into staging the event, telling him to his face: "your concerts are boring!"...this is his facial expression upon hearing this from the usually gentlemanly Novak...ha, ha...


What transpires from here is pure magic...a dynamite 10 minute scene the likes of which I can't remember ever seeing before...brilliant Jazz standards deconstructed, reformed and rearranged on the fly with the believable performances of the guest stars, leads and supporting players...fear, hesitation, surging inspiration and knowing glances that depict supreme rivals and yet sure friends caught up in the revelation in discovery of their true destinies...emphasis on the knowing glances, as so much more is said without words here...along with the kind of energy only the young can summon...I indulge in a lot of superlatives when I discuss this series...but trust me, this is incredible...I had shivers going up and down my spine while watching it!... Even if you think you don't like Jazz, you might find your toes tapping and your fingers drumming along...







Ray referring to his dear friend Jo Jo and his special teacher..."What they've got you just can't teach...it's not like grammar...you know that square Mr. Novak? He knew all along"...


There are some things that the wise Novak knows he cannot teach...and some things he can..."Let's dig a little grammar"...

 

[Flashgear]

Now, about the music in Let's Dig a Little Grammar...although Tommy Sands and Johnny Crawford are convincing in miming to the brilliant real music here, we need to acknowledge the real, but uncredited, talent behind that incredible music...thanks to a passage in Chuck Harter's brilliant book on Mr. Novak, An Acclaimed Television Series, we can!...an archived review from The Hollywood Reporter by Hank Grant on November 12, 1964...quote: "Not seen were 10 of this country's best Jazz instrumentalists who were actually blowing up a storm: Keith Mitchell, Shelly Manne, Artie Kane, James Zito, Donald Farquist, R.W. Cooper, Richard Noel, Ted Nash, C.E.Shank and James R. Gibbons"...

Now to identify as much music as possible, please keep in mind I'm no musicologist, but I think I heard a few bars of Duke Ellington's famous Black and Tan Fantasy performed near the beginning of the episode, ostensibly by the student orchestra...easier to identify is Louis ('Satchmo') Armstrong's Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home? performed as a vocal duet by Tommy Sands and Johnny Crawford, also near the beginning of the episode...

Thanks to intros voiced by David Sheiner as music teacher Mr. Webb during the extensive concert trumpet duel sequence, multiple rewinds to make out the names, and information I found on Wikipedia as background, we have excerpts from these well known Jazz standards...

Jack Teagarden's Jazz Trombone arrangement for The Jazz Me Blues (1928)...Jazz Hall of Fame Trombone player Jack Teagarden had just passed away the previous January, and this was likely a meaningful tribute from the Jazz ensemble...a classic Dixieland standard...

Frank Trumbauer's Alto Sax arrangement of I'm Coming Virginia, (1926), another immortal Dixieland treasure...

Bunny Berigan's Jazz Trumpet arrangement for Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke's memorable I Can't Get Started, an immortal Swing standard from 1936...a particularly familiar and beautiful piece of music...

During the Trumpet duel, it is an open question if the improv riffs are actually sampled from the works of Miles Davis (Kind of Blue, Birth of the Cool), Dizzy Gillespie and Chet Baker...all of whom are spoken of in reverence by the characters of Sands, Crawford, Franciscus and Jagger in this script...

All of this music was originally published by Verve, Polygram, Capitol, Decca and Columbia back in the day...from information I derived from Wikipedia, after a succession of corporate ownership, all of this music is currently held by Interscope Geffen A+M, Universal Music and Sony Music now.

More screen caps from Let's Dig a Little Grammar...











Man, oh man, what an episode full of electric excitement, brilliant in execution...and as I said earlier, it sent chills up and down my spine during that astonishing 10 minute scene! One for the ages...

 

[Matt Hough]

Your description just makes me doubly excited to hopefully see the episode some day. I watched Mr. Novak back in the day, but I have no memory of individual episodes, certainly not this one.

 

[bmasters9]

Look what I found on EBay: a vintage board game of Mr. Novak (might go just as well with the DVDs as Chuck Harter's book does)!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mr-Novak-B...=item2140996543:g:pXsAAOSwXudbEXmk:rk:16:pf:0

 

[Jobla]

i don't think that Chuck Harter's book was too enthusiastic about the game. I never saw that game myself, but I wonder if it was similar to another early 1960's "scholastic" board game, Go To The Head Of The Class. Some board game themes tended to be recycled.

For example, I had three allegedly different board games (Roller Derby, Ben-Hur, and Sons of Hercules) that all depended on moving tokens around a circular track. I bet there were other variations on that theme, such as an auto racing and a horse racing game, but I never had those.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, that board game was talked about in the Mr. Novak book about a teen-age girl group who met together each week to play the game and watch that week's episode.

 

[bmasters9]

Yes, that board game was talked about in the Mr. Novak book about a teen-age girl group who met together each week to play the game and watch that week's episode.

Did not know they did that!

 

[Bob Gu]

I was surprised that a search for "Mr. Novak comic books" turned up no comics. Other than the Novak game there does not seem to be much merchandizing for MR. NOVAK.

Dr. Kildare had a game, books, and comics. Ben Casey had a game, comics sometimes drawn by Gene Colan and newspaper comic strip, daily and Sunday drawn by Neal Adams.

 

[bmasters9]

Dr. Kildare had a game, books, and comics. Ben Casey had a game, comics sometimes drawn by Gene Colan and newspaper comic strip, daily and Sunday drawn by Neal Adams.
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I never knew there were games for Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon!

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Cool info, guys! Love that artwork for the Ben Casey comic strip...really captures his likeness well. And I want that Rand McNally Elf Sergeant Preston book!

It's funny (and sad) the extent to which Mr. Novak seems to have dropped off the pop culture radar over the decades. So nice to see what was obviously a pretty famous show getting some belated love and attention (gotta be famous to make the cover of Betty and Veronica, am I right?)...thanks especially to Chuck Harter, Warner Archive and of course our very own Randall.

Speaking of...any sign of your S1 set yet, Randall? Might have to get the Mounties on the case...

 

[Lecagr]

During the 1960's, a lot of merchandising was done for many of the TV shows. Comic books, games, etc. I miss those days, they were fun times.

The 1960's was the best decade for TV, so many good shows during that time, even many of the short lived ones, a season or less, aren't really that bad.

I'm thinking about ordering the 1st season DVD of Mr. Novak, sounds like it's too good to pass up. To me, Mr. Novak is similar to Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare, the difference being that Mr. Novak is high school drama and the other two shows are medical dramas.

 

[Neil Brock]

That detailed description of the music in that episode leads me to believe that it is very unlikely we'll ever see a DVD release of the second season of the show. Which seems to be something which completely went over the heads of all you discussing the episode. Every note of music has to be cleared and if all of those cuts are what you say they were, they will never be able to clear that episode for release and judging by their past reluctance to not issue full seasons intact, means this episode is more of the problem than Faculty Follies is.

 

[Neil Brock]

During the 1960's, a lot of merchandising was done for many of the TV shows. Comic books, games, etc. I miss those days, they were fun times.

The 1960's was the best decade for TV, so many good shows during that time, even many of the short lived ones, a season or less, aren't really that bad.

I'm thinking about ordering the 1st season DVD of Mr. Novak, sounds like it's too good to pass up. To me, Mr. Novak is similar to Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare, the difference being that Mr. Novak is high school drama and the other two shows are medical dramas.

A friend of mine once asked me if there were any 60s shows that I didn't like. I really had to think for a few days before I was able to come up with one: Daktari. I could actually add a couple more now. Cowboy in Africa, The Tammy Grimes Show and I'm not sure if there are any others. Even a bomb like Pruitts of Southampton had its charms.

 

[Ian K McLachlan]

We'll have to disagree Neil as Daktari is one of my all time favourite shows from any decade never mind the 1960s. I have always hoped that Cowboy in Africa might be released one day.

I really hope that we get the second season of Mr. Novak even if it is incomplete.

 

[bmasters9]

I really hope that we get the second season of Mr. Novak even if it is incomplete.

How true, how true! I'm sure that there are those who enjoyed the entirety of The Odd Couple as CBS has presented it on DVD, even despite the musical replacements, because it's an incredibly classic comedy.

 

[Bert Greene]

Oh, I have a hard time actively 'disliking' just about any series from the 1960s. A few have limited appeal for me, but that's different than disliking. For example, the music shows like "Shindig" or "Hullabaloo" don't really interest me in the least. And some things like the later seasons of "The Lucy Show" are a bit of a trial for me to endure. A lot of other items I might just be lukewarm on.

There are only two 1960s series I can think of that I genuinely dislike, "My Mother the Car" and "The Defenders."

 

[bmasters9]

There are only two 1960s series I can think of that I genuinely dislike, "My Mother the Car" and "The Defenders."

I doubt those would appeal to me, either!

 

[Neil Brock]

Oh, I have a hard time actively 'disliking' just about any series from the 1960s. A few have limited appeal for me, but that's different than disliking. For example, the music shows like "Shindig" or "Hullabaloo" don't really interest me in the least. And some things like the later seasons of "The Lucy Show" are a bit of a trial for me to endure. A lot of other items I might just be lukewarm on.

There are only two 1960s series I can think of that I genuinely dislike, "My Mother the Car" and "The Defenders."

Don't like Hullabaloo or Shindig? Perhaps Sing Along With Mitch and Lawrence Welk were more to your liking?

As for the 2 series you dislike, that's ironic in that you pick the worst show of the decade and the BEST!

 

[Neil Brock]

I really hope that we get the second season of Mr. Novak even if it is incomplete.

Warner Archive has not issued any series on DVD that they cannot clear all of the music nor have the issued any show with any music replacement. If they are unable to clear every episode in its original form, they do not issue it.